The Department of Justice does not exactly have a rep on the interwebs for hosting awesome video content. Not surprisingly, this public service announcement was not actually created by DOJ. Good thing, too, because if DOJ ever creates a video I actually like, it’s gonna seriously mess with my current paradigm.
Tribal justice remains hard to come by, and the youth in these videos suggest some of the many challenges of their communities. While the current Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) reauthorization fight seems to be focused on the War on Women, there is a tribal component as well.
Reauthorization opponents suggest that some of the new provisions are inappropriately taking powers and jurisdictional rights away from the federal government and giving them to tribes. In fact, this is not the case at all. Currently, tribes can only prosecute for crimes that are committed within their physical jurisdictions by tribal members. So a white person. committing a crime like domestic violence against a tribal member on tribal land, can not be handled by the tribal criminal justice system.
Prosecution is left, instead, to the federal government. And the feds aren’t prosecuting much of anything outside of the most serious events, like homicide. The new VAWA provisions simply allow for concurrent jurisdiction. Tribes would be allowed to handle crimes committed within their physical jurisdictions, regardless of the offender’s tribal affiliation status.
Why does anyone have a problem with that? Especially given that the federal government can still step in as well? When foreign nationals commit crimes on American soil, we don’t hesitate to process them through our criminal justice system. Can you imagine a system that said that any foreigner who commits a crime here has to be processed by the CJS of their country of origin? Of course not. It’s absurd.
Justice in Indian country means closing this gap. It might be a different conversation if the federal government was keeping up with its responsibility to prosecute, but they aren’t. Right now, it’s like a free-for-all playground for those who abuse women and commit other crimes not worthy of federal attention. As long as you’re white, the tribal justice system can’t touch you and the federal system won’t bother.
Time to change. Justice for the young tribal youth in the PSA means holding non-tribal members accountable when they commit crimes on tribal land against tribal members.
‘Nuff said. Or not. Weigh in on the comments section if you’d like.
Administrator
April 13, 2012
After viewing the Vanguard documentary, Rape on the Reservation, I was astounded to say the least and outraged about the fact that there are still so many atrocities committed against the Native people. We who are not Native have no clue about the truth, and most media reports are nothing but the history books regurgitated….a pack of lies.
I wrote a short blog about it here: http://timesupblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/rape-on-reservation.html
It’s my understanding from writing the above that on July 29, 2010 The Tribal Law and Order Act was enacted which will allow tribal jurisdiction over non-Natives and offenders for the crimes of sexual violence. It also allows tribal police access to the government’s database, NCIC, as well as funding and programs to help those who are affected by sexual and domestic violence.
That being said, my question is if the crime is committed on tribal land, tribal laws supercede “our” laws and the criminal is prosecuted according to the tribal laws, is that correct? So it’s not always the blame of those non-Native enforcers of US State or Federal laws, it’s also the responsibility of the Native Tribes and the laws made for themselves within the tribal lands and the Native enforcers, prosecutors and judges to overcome their biases towards women and convict the offenders accordingly.
Thanks for writing this one!
CrimeCents
April 13, 2012
Hi there, thanks for visiting. I’ll be the first to tell you that I’m not an expert in this area. I wrote the post after attending a recent training on the tribal provisions in VAWA that have been raised as issues in VAWA reauthorization. What I took from it was that if the crime is committed on tribal land by a non-tribal member, the tribes could not move forward with a case. I did a quick search to reconfirm my facts, and found these helpful links:
http://www.tribal-institute.org/lists/jurisdiction.htm
http://www.justice.gov/usao/eousa/foia_reading_room/usam/title9/crm00689.htm
From the second link, you can find the text that says for a non-Indian offender against an Indian victim, “Federal jurisdiction under 18 U.S.C. § 1152 is exclusive of state and tribal jurisdiction.”
Hope that helps!
Michelle B. Araneta
April 15, 2012
I have to be honest, I haven’t been following the issues raised on the VAWA reauthorization in the U.S. Unfortunately, I’m located in Asia at the moment, but I was shocked that there were issues being raised on reauthorizing VAWA. VAWA is simply a public crime, a public offense. I believe that we are putting in too many definitions, too many lines that it is just complicating the issues. Violence Against Women is exactly that, violence against women. Should it matter where she is from, or who committed the violence against her? Am I missing something?
CrimeCents
April 15, 2012
Yep. VAWA is as simple as a funding package for criminal justice system services. Reauthorization shouldn’t be so difficult.